The raging bleak wind died away,
Till it remained as the sound of the sea.
Ikenishi Gonsui (1649 – 1722)
The Bleak Wind
Through Shadows To The Edge Of Night
Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We’ll wander back and home to bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
J.R.R. Tolkien, A Walking Song from The Fellowship of the Ring
Walk Through Walls
I’ve just finished reading Marina Abramovic’s memoir, Walking Through Walls, and I was blown away, even though I’m not a fan of performance art. The book is ghostwritten, but you can clearly hear her voice throughout the whole book – well done indeed. It’s fascinating reading; her whole life is a performance. She truly lives the art. She says somewhere in the book that art shouldn’t be seen as something isolated, holly, and separated from life; art should be a natural part of life. And she lives by that.
After attending Susan Sontag’s funeral in Paris (which very few people attended), she made detailed plans for her own funeral because she wanted that funeral to be her last piece of art. The last performance. I hope not to see it any time soon (she’s 74 years old). All in all, very inspirational. Read it!
Bonus: watch her TED Talk about performance art An Art Made of Trust, Vulnerability and Connection (15 minutes) plus 6 Famous Marina Abramović Performances.
Enjoy! I’m off to the garden to plant about 25 kg of spring bulbs. Toil now, enjoy later.
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At Yamei’s House
How cool are these Saga bamboos!
A picture of refreshing air!
by Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694)
A New Refutation of Time
Time is a river that carries me away, but I am the river; it is a tiger that destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
Jorge Luis Borges, A New Refutation of Time
I was nineteen when I discovered Borges, an age when the world is still new, and discoveries have a strong emotional effect. Reading Labyrinths for the first time is one of the motley experiences that shaped me into the person I am today.
The Refutation of Time (1946), an elegant essay on time, was later included in the Labyrinths volume from 1962. A mere quotation fails to convey Borges’ richness of thought, unexpected connections, and elegant prose.
If you haven’t read anything by Borges, I urge you to do so. I envy you the thrill of reading him for the first time.
The first Borges books I bought back in the day from my meager student allowance. I still read them every few years, always remembering the joy I had experienced the first time. He imagined the universe as a library. Need I say more?
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Cicadas’ Voices
What stillness! The cicadas’ voices
Penetrates the rocks.
by Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694)
About Art and Artists
A few weeks ago, I stumbled over an interesting article about art and artists, How to Be an Artist, by Jerry Saltz, the New York Magazine art critic. The whole article lists thirty-three points and is worth reading in full. I have inserted below a few points that resonated with me. Especially the last one. LOL.
- Tell your own story, and you will be interesting.
- Your skill will be whatever it is you’re doing differently.
- Writers need editors.* No exceptions.
- Life is your syllabus: gather from everywhere.
- The best definition of success is time – the time to do your work.
- Be delusional: I have one solution to turn away these demons: After beating yourself up for half an hour or so, stop and say out loud, ”Yeah, but I’m a fucking genius.”
* My comment: definitely; it’s sufficient to compare Andy Weir’s The Martian (self-published) to Artemis (published by Ballantine Books). QED. I love Science-Fiction, and I did read the whole Martian. But I wished all the time for an editor. I almost grabbed a pen and started editing it myself.
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Tonight’s Moon
Some villages have no sea-breams, no flowers;
But tonight’s moon is seen in all villages.
by Ihara Saikaku (1642 – 1693)
The Theory Of Willlessness
Nothing can be willed into being, only waited on, for, or waited out.
A.K. Ramanujan from “Journeys: A Poet’s Diary”
I often find myself thinking of Ramanujan‘s words, especially when the blank page stares at me, the cursor steadily flickering its accusatory blink. I delete more than I write. The inner critic is always on duty. But write I do, in the end. After all, “you can always edit a bad page; you can’t edit a blank page.” Jodi Picoult would know.
Garden Life
All the hard work of the last four months has paid off (thank you, Covid-19, for the unexpected time off). The garden is lush and vibrating (literally) with insect life; as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I planned the garden to attract wildlife.
Painted lady butterfly (Cynthia cardui) on echinacea (Echinacea purpurea var. Magnus).
Tortoise-shell butterfly (Aglais urticae) and bumblebee competing for the same flower.
Tortoise-shell butterfly on aster (Aster amellus).
Painted lady butterfly in a sea of echinacea.
A bumblebee hard at work on a pink echinacea.
Peacock butterfly (Inachis io).
Bumblee on great masterwort (Astrantia major). Notice the raised leg, warning off other insects from the flower.
Two brimstone butterflies (Gonepteryx rhamni) have a meeting. Exchanging tips on best echinacea, maybe?
Now I’m off to the garden again, weeding, and deadheading, and watering, and, and, … work never stops in a garden. Or fun.
I hope you have a good summer, considering Covid-10 et al. Stay healthy, stay calm, and soldier on. And don’t forget to laugh.
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